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The University offered more than 1,200 online classes in 2012, McMaster said.

Each online class costs the University between $20,000 and $100,000 in startup expenses, he said, and part of the ODL fee goes to recovering those costs.

ODL Assistant Director Joan Saunders said the University also uses part of the fee to keep copyrighted information online instead of having students buy a course packet, as they might for a traditional class.

Other institutions also charge additional fees for online classes, though amounts vary.

At the University of Illinois-Springfield, students pay a $25 fee for each credit hour they take as an online course.

Ohio State University charges a $100 fee per term for students taking distance learning courses. The fee pays for “24-7 distance education support,” according to the school’s website.

But even though online classes and their fees are relatively new, distance learning has always come at a cost.

When ODL courses were first offered at the University, McMaster said, they came with separate fees because students and instructors had to pay to mail course materials back and forth.

As online classes became more common, he said, expenses for providing and maintaining them increased, directing money away from individual courses.

“Historically, these were separate units, and as separate units, they had to earn their own revenue and didn’t have the resources of the whole University behind them,” McMaster said.